Hsu Hsueh-chi

Hsu Hsueh-chi (Chinese: 許雪姬; born 1953) is a Taiwanese historian. She is a distinguished research fellow of the Academia Sinica and holds an adjunct professorship within National Taiwan Normal University's Graduate Institute of Taiwan History.[1][2]

A native of Penghu County, Hsu earned a doctorate in history from National Taiwan University. She specializes in the 228 incident of 1947 and ensuing White Terror period.[3][4] In 1991, the Executive Yuan convened a committee to investigate the 228 incident, and asked her to contribute.[5][6] Hsu provided oral histories to what became the Research Report on the 228 Incident.[7][8] Throughout her career, Hsu has asked for continued transparency regarding historical documents relating to the 228 incident.[9] She was invited to discuss an upcoming exhibition at the 228 Memorial Museum that eventually opened to visitors in 2011.[10] Hsu served as the director of Academia Sinica's Institute of Taiwan History from 2005 to 2011, and was reappointed in 2017.[11] While Hsu was director in 2011, the institute set up an exhibition titled "Her History in Taiwan," focusing on the role of women in Taiwan from 1795 to 1950.[12] In 2014, Hsu lent support to a petition against revisions to high school history textbooks backed by the Ministry of Education, stating of the Ma Ying-jeou presidential administration, "They just do whatever they want. Their intention and anxiety to incorporate Taiwan into China is easy to see."[13] The next year, she set up an exhibition titled "A Jail Beyond the Prison Walls" at Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park, focusing on women and their family members jailed or executed during the White Terror.[14] Hsu was nominated to serve on the Transitional Justice Commission in April 2018.[3][15] In materials written for review by the Legislative Yuan, she opined that the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall should remain standing to serve as a reminder of past authoritarianism, with its statue of Chiang Kai-shek moved to the Cihu Memorial Sculpture Park, suggesting an arts library or human rights museum in its place.[16] Hsu's nomination was approved in May 2018.[17][18]

Hsu's book The Compilation of Historical Data from the Secrecy Bureau on the 228 Incident, meant to "unveil the truth" about the uprising, has not yet been released.[19] Her completed work includes a biography of Chuang Shu-chi,[20] a book about the March 2 incident in Chiayi,[21] and the foreword to the 2015 edition of Lin Hsien-tang's Travel Writings from around the Globe.[22]